Monthly Archives: March 2015

My daughter and I were listening to songs to play for her upcoming wedding. We were listening to several current songs that were remakes by string quartets. We were listening to songs and thinking of the lyrics wanting the words to be appropriate as well as the music being good. She played a song for me by one of her favorite local groups played by a string quartet and I really liked the melody. I asked about the lyrics and she said she didn’t want me to know because they were “messed up” and not good.

We went on to listen to more songs but kept coming back to the same one. What she said next led me to write this blog. “I wish I could hear the music the way you are hearing it. Now that I’ve heard the words I cannot unhear them.”

I thought about that statement on the way home and realized that the melody was beautiful to me because I didn’t have the words to label it…to conceptualize it…to make a story out of it. I could only just hear the music.

As humans we need to label everything in our awareness in order to communicate what is perceived by our senses. But sometimes it may be best to just enjoy the music without the words to tell the story attached to it. The same could be said for enjoying life……